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Tuesday, 30 August 2016

The Consequences of a Failed Palestinian Authority.

A month ago I wrote an article
entitled ‘The Failed State of the Two-State Solution.’ In it, I wrote
that “by the ballot or by the ballot Hamas will head any Palestinian state
as they did when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.”

So what has happened in the short
time since I released that article?

In Nablus, on August 27, an
estimated 120,000 protesters demonstrated against the Palestinian Authority
after an Arab was beaten to death by PA security men. Many called for an
international investigation into the murder as the Palestinian Authority
threatened to arrest some of the leaders of the protest march. The town of
Nablus has been described as being in “total anarchy.”

Sporadic violence has broken out
in recent days against the Palestinian Authority, often by individuals but also
by tribal groups or clans at odds with the increasingly unpopular rule by
perceived corrupt leaders.

Universities are the crucibles
that produce the next generation of opinion and influence makers. What has
flown below the radar of the international community is that, at Birzeit
University, the student body overwhelmingly elected students affiliated to
Hamas with the Islamic List taking a majority 26 seats against Fatah’s 19. For
the uninitiated, Birzeit is not a campus in the Gaza Strip. Birzeit University
is located ten kilometers north of Ramallah, an easy march to Palestinian
Authority headquarters.

Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah,
propped up by the international community and, by default, the Israeli
government, has failed this community by his stubborn refusal to negotiate with
Israel, a refusal based on his adamant rejection of living alongside a Jewish
state.

He has clearly also failed his
own people who elected him back in 2005 and have been barred from expressing
their democratic voice ever since.

Surveys show a sharp fall in
Palestinian Arabs supporting a two-state solution. There has been a radical
fall in support for an Abbas-led Palestinian rulership and a rise in support
for Hamas.

The persistent fever for violence
against Israel was highlighted in a study made in March 2016 by the Palestinian
Center for Policy and Study which found that the majority of Palestinian Arabs
yearn for violence. 60% of West Bank Arabs and three quarters of Gaza Strip
Arabs favor violence against Jews.

If truth be told, Arabs living
under Palestinian control are angrier at their leaders than they are against
Israel.

The proof of this statement can
be found in the results of a recent 22 August 2016 poll conducted by the
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research which discovered that a
majority 68% of the Palestinian population admire Israeli democracy while only
10% of Israelis see anything positive with Palestinian democracy. It is telling
that this Palestinian NGO did not ask Palestinian Arabs what they thought of
their own leadership and democracy. The result of this vital question would
expose the rotten heart of Palestinian ‘democracy’ that is driving
people to the streets in protest.

The only way that Abbas can
prevent Hamas from using the democratic process to take over the West Bank is
to block Hamas affiliated candidates in municipal elections. This is democracy,
Palestinian-style.

This brings me to question the
shallow mantra of a two-state solution being the only show in town.

Has Kerry,
Obama, or Hillary Clinton ever thought their way beyond this empty slogan? Have
they ever considered the consequences of forcing Israel to withdraw from
essential territory that is rightfully theirs to produce a Palestine that will,
inevitably, be controlled by the Islamic terror organization, Hamas? For this surely is the direction they are
taking us.

My criticism is also aimed at the
gullible Israeli politicians and Israeli strategic think tanks of the left.
They think everything will be hunky-dory by waving a magic wand and declaring
any future Palestine will be “demilitarized.”

What? You mean demilitarized like
in Gaza? What will demilitarized look
like when West Bank Palestine is in the grips of a population-supporting
Islamic regime, and their demilitarized terrorists are looking down on
Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv from the heights of Rantis with their demilitarized
rocket launchers? What then?

As Palestinian Arabs head to the
municipal polling stations on October 8 (unless they are cancelled), it is
sobering to consider the reality of the inevitable collapse of the Abbas Palestinian
Authority. It will highlight the continuing myopia of short-sighted diplomats
who think they can predict the outcome of their foolish policies.

Of course, if the Palestinian street falls to Hamas in the West Bank, as it did in Gaza, the wailing two-state hoping fanatics will point the finger at Israel, the perennial blame-taker, when it is blatantly the fault of the international diplomatic community that has pumped unconditional billions of dollars into the Palestinians without demanding from them an end to violence and terror, evidence of stability and real democracy, or even an iota of recognition of the legitimate rights of Israel to exist in peace and security. It looks as if its going to be money poured down the Palestinian drain.

As for Israel, it is time to
openly debate alternatives to a failed two-state solution before the
consequences of a failed Palestinian Authority collapses on us.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at
the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
He is the author of the best-selling book “Fighting Hamas, BDS &
Anti-Semitism.”